


Into the Woods

by unwillingadventurer



Category: Raffles - E. W. Hornung
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:40:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24387616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwillingadventurer/pseuds/unwillingadventurer
Summary: Raffles has a surprise date for Bunny.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Into the Woods

I had that very moment taken a sip from a newly brewed cup of coffee when Raffles had grasped my hand and informed me that we suddenly had plans for the evening. I did not know where he sprung from, only that he had not been beside me moments earlier and now he had materialised before me as though he were part of some elaborate magician’s act. The only thing missing was a puff of smoke.

“May I ask where you’re dragging me to?” I said as he took my cup away and all I could do was take a last lingering smell of the aroma as it moved further and further from my nostrils. I heard the cup clatter as he placed it down on the metal tray away from my reach.

“It’s somewhat of a surprise, my dear Rabbit.” He flashed me one of those smiles that made my knees weaken and made me powerless to question. “Come along.”

I just had time to grab my jacket before Raffles had led me from the Albany onto the mostly quiet streets, cool and fresh after an unseasonably warm March afternoon. And there we walked on and on, arm in arm, silently, dreamily, until at last we were away from the streets and inside a hansom cab Raffles had hailed that led me to an unknown location.

“Why couldn’t we have hailed a cab from the Albany?” I queried.

“I fancied the little walk first. Isn’t it wonderful out?”

“You still haven’t told me where we’re going.”

He tapped my nose. “Hence the word surprise.”

I smiled, suddenly feeling strangely excited. Most likely he was luring me to crime as was expected of him but there was something quite dazzling in his eyes that I wondered for a moment if I was wrong and Raffles had something else in mind, something just for me.

As soon as the cab pulled up at the deserted dreary location and we stepped outside onto the uneven terrain, Raffles paid the driver as I stared at our somewhat ominous destination with an open mouth. The sound of the horse departing sounded eerily loud against the silence of the night as its hooves clip-clopped along the cobbled path.

“What on earth are we doing here?” I asked.

I couldn’t think of a single thing we would do in this place that could be considered criminal, well, not that sort of criminal activity anyway. Raffles had brought us to some kind of secluded forest or woodland, seemingly to my eye in the middle of nowhere with soon to be only the night birds for our company. I followed him, winding left and right through the trees, down a path Raffles seemed to know, to where we stopped at a tree which looked identical to the rest but which seemed to catch his eye. 

“A chance for some alone time,” Raffles said, taking off his jacket and placing it on one of the tree branches as though it were a clothes hanger. He next took my hand and motioned to the dry leaves and moss upon the ground. “A seat for the gentleman, Mr. Manders.”

“It’s dirty.”

He laughed and un-hung his jacket, placing it upon the ground as a blanket. “Then perhaps his highness would prefer this?”

“He would.”

“Where are my manners?”

Sitting down, I glanced around at the trees. The music of nature was in full force as bushes rustled with the sounds of scurrying creatures, and branches swayed in the breeze as winged birds flapped and bristled upon their wooden perches which looked like skeletal fingers reaching out to the sky. In some sense I understood why Raffles had picked such a place, far away from people and with a mood of melancholy and danger.

“I say, A.J, is this a date?”

“Whatever you wish.”

“It’s a long way to come for a date.” I smirked.

“And we’ve come a long way ourselves since that night, the Ides of March. You know it’s been a year my dearest Rabbit since you graced my rooms and threatened to blow your pretty little brains out? What a memory to imprint on a fellow!”

“Oh, is it a year passed already?” I feigned innocence. I hadn’t expected him to remember and I wouldn’t admit I’d counted down the days of this anniversary of our reunion. I’d thought of nothing else for weeks, nothing but the adventures we’d been on and the bond we’d built. A year with ten years’ worth of life lived within it. We had the world at our feet and the future ahead.

“Happy anniversary, Bunny!”

“So, you brought me to the woods for what? Looks like a serial killer’s dumping ground.”

He laughed. “You have no art in your soul, Bunny. A dumping ground? Do you know how this place will look now the light begins to fade, how the purple and orange will join us presently? We are alone here to enjoy its beauty together.”

“I’m only teasing, actually, it’s quite perfect. Happy anniversary to you too.”

I sat next to him and shuffled close, feeling a spark of electricity as my hand made contact with his bare arm. I took off my own jacket and rested it beside me.

“There’s certainly something romantic about twilight, isn’t there?” I said.

Raffles merely exhaled a sigh of pleasure as he laid back upon the ground, closing his eyes. A moment later he sat bolt upright and sighed. “Bunny, what are you doing?”

“How do you mean?”

He patted the ground beside him and then laid back down so I could no longer see his lips and could only hear him say ‘Join me’ as if he were luring me to some underground lair.

At his suggestion, I lay down beside him and shuffled my body as close as I could, feeling enraptured by his warmth. “And there’s no-one around?”

“Not a soul doth dwell here.”

“We’re like woodland creatures!”

“That we are.”

I lay my head upon his chest so I could hear his heart beating and my how it drummed. The evening air was beginning to feel cold and so I wrapped my arms across him until we were in each other’s arms, hidden among the trees and bushes. His drumming heart raced faster at my touch and how incredible it was to be in that moment, out in the open together, cuddled like animals, warming each other in the day that was ending and turning so chilly. We said nothing but simply lay and waited and watched as the sun began to fade and the purple that Raffles had mentioned began to surround us. The sky looked like a painting and boy was it mesmerising.

“Could we spend the next year out here?” I whispered, snug in his embrace. “Just we two.”

“Live off the land eh Bunny? We could build a house of sticks and hunt at night. Paint our cheeks and roam around naked.”

I laughed. “Maybe not then. Honestly A.J, I have some standards.”

“I must admit I would miss Sullivan’s and scotch whiskey.”

“And certain thefts involving jewels?”

“Oh, I could still manage that, Bunny.” He let go of me and instead turned to face me. “Think of it. To live in the woods by day and to civilization and night for the jewels.”

“But you’d have no need of jewels.”

“True but ah, to see Inspector Mackenzie’s face when I emerge from the treehouse.”

“You’ve built a treehouse now? No girls allowed and all that?”

“No. Just you and I.”

I rested my head on his shoulder. “That does sounds nice.”

He tussled my hair and then lay a kiss upon my head. “It’s getting dark, I can barely see you.”

“You can feel me though.” I gently tickled him under the ribs and he tried not to laugh.

We both sat there laughing for several moments until I too could barely see him. “You’re right, A.J, we really need to get out of here before some strange axe murderer walks through here and decides to chop us into little pieces.”

“More likely we’ll be mistaken for animals. ‘Run rabbit run’ I’ll shout when the poachers arrive.”

“That’s not funny.” I grabbed his hand. “It’s the one of many anniversaries and I intend to survive until our fiftieth.”

“I admire your optimism, Bunny.”

“You don’t think we will?”

I couldn’t see his face and I never heard him answer, only felt him take my hand and lead me through the trees, the way we came, back to that dusty road. I stood staring around, wondering where we were.

“A.J? How are we going to get back?”

His arm linked through mine. “Ah, well, I hadn’t really thought about that. Moonlight walk it is.”

“It’ll be miles away!”

“Then we walk together. Always by my side, aren’t you, Bunny?”

“Forever.”


End file.
